Texas-based Bitcoin miner Giga Energy is expanding its operations to Argentina, utilizing the wasted energy from natural gas flaring in the country’s oil fields. Giga’s co-founder Brent Whitehead announced this expansion as a significant milestone for the company in a LinkedIn post on March 26th.
Giga Energy’s Noteworthy Move
CNBC reported on March 26 that as part of this expansion, Giga will place a large shipping container with thousands of Bitcoin miners on top of an oil well, redirect the excess gas to generators, and then use this energy to power Bitcoin mining machines.
The company’s other co-founder Matt Lohstroh told CNBC that Giga’s mining facility in the Mendoza province of Argentina has been in the testing phase since December and has already mined Bitcoin valued between $200,000 and $250,000.
However, the company is waiting to import all the necessary equipment before fully scaling the operation. Until then, the firm does not expect to make a profit. According to a recent academic paper from the University of Michigan, Argentina has the world’s second-largest shale gas reserves.
Preparations for Bitcoin Halving Continue
Whitehead told CNBC that the company’s Bitcoin mining operation will also reduce methane emissions and included the following statement:
“Giga actively contributes to the reduction of global methane emissions by capturing stranded natural gas to power modular data centers for energy-intensive computing.”
IT services company Exa Tech is helping Giga run operations on the field, while oil and gas company Phoenix Global Resources will provide the gas needed to power the Bitcoin miners.
According to CNBC, Giga initiated its Bitcoin mining operations in 2019 and has set up containers with a capacity of 150 megawatts at its facilities in Texas and Shanghai. This move comes as Bitcoin mining companies prepare for the upcoming Bitcoin halving event, which is expected to occur around April 20.
The halving event will see the Bitcoin reward for miners drop from 6.25 Bitcoins valued at $439,000 to 3.125 Bitcoins worth $219,000. According to Jaran Mellerud, founder and chief mining strategist at Hashlabs Mining, this event could cause a shift in the global hashrate to countries with cheaper electricity rates than the US.
